Symbol of Love

“What did you do?” Sunggyu said standing behind you. You knelt down beside the bed and flipped up its skirt, your eyes darting frantically.

You moved to feet and faced him. You played with your empty ring finger. “I may or may not have…” you mumbled the last part.

“What?”

“I may or may not have…lost my wedding ring!” You blurted out, your hands coming up quickly to cover your mouth. You turned away from him, your face blazing.

“You lost your ring?” You could imagine his face, his jaw slackened and his eyes downcast from the inability to look at you or else feeling hurt or angry again. “We’ve been married less than a month and you’ve managed to lose your ring?!” You could hear the hurt laced with his tone.

You crossed your arms before yourself, keeping your gaze on your bare feet. “it sounds so bad when you say it that way. I didn’t mean to…it’s just i take it off every once in a while.”

“Mwo?”

You caught yourself and spun around. “Only when I’m cooking or bathing or something like that. I don’t want it to get dirty.” You raised a hand and ran it through your hair, letting out a cool breath. “I just can’t remember where I put it this time.”

Sensing that anger was a defeated feeling for this purpose, Sunggyu’s expression softened as he approached you, taking your arms into his hands, giving them a comforting squeeze. “Hey, it’ll be alright.” He moved his hand to go through your hair, similar to what someone would do to a child. “Where were you last when you had it?”

You smiled as you made eye contact, then placed your finger against your chin in thought. “I was in the kitchen when I last remembered having it.” Sunggyu grabbed your hand and dragged you speedily in the direction of the kitchen. He stopped at the entry while you retraced your steps, entering fully and positioning yourself by the stove. “I was taking the cupcakes out of the oven and put them on the counter.” You mimed the action.

“Then what?”

You placed your hands against the counter, then pointed to the living room. “i went into the living room and read a magazine on the couch while they cooled.”

He rushed into the living room and did a quick sweep of the couch. “Nothing there,” he reported coming back to the kitchen. “What next?”

“Came back and put frosting on the cupcakes.”

“Did you take it off then?”

You shook your head. “I used a piping bag, so I didn’t have to take the ring off.”

“Keep going.”

“In the middle of frosting, Sungjong called! So, I went to pick up the phone.”

“Sungjong called you? While we were at work?” You nodded. Sunggyu crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. “What did he want? Did he leave something here the other night?”

You shook your head. “He always calls me around the middle of the day.”

“What for?”

You shrugged, shuffling some of the things on the counter. “Something about he’s afraid I’m going to pull some crazy stunt on you and just suddenly turn up and missing for fun. So, he calls everyday around noon to check up on me, makes sure I’m right in the head.” You looked at back at your husband who seemed deep in thought. “Is that alright?” You asked him after a while. He met your eyes, lost at first, then nodded.

His hands moved to his pockets as he closed in on you. “What did you do after the call?”

“I came back and finished icing,” you started miming again. “I thought to try one of the cupcakes and so I picked one up…” your hand was cupped at your mouth when your eyes widened. You put the invisible cupcake back down and looked at sunggyu. “I got icing on my finger so I put the cupcake down and…”

“Took off your ring?”

“Exactly!” You exclaimed, “I took it off and went into the bathroom and washed my hands. Then I came back and ate the cupcake.”

“And your ring?”

“That’s when I noticed it was missing. It wasn’t on the counter,” your voice began to die. “and neither was my cupcake. As a matter of fact…”

Barking suddenly filled the apartment as the front door opened. “Oh no,” you voiced before whisking out of the kitchen. Sunggyu was hot on your trail as you rushed to the door to meet Myungsoo and your dog, Tonto.

“We’re back!” Myungsoo announced, unlocking the leash from your beloved pet. You dropped down before Tonto and inspected the area around the creature’s mouth. You found the evidence you were looking for: a section of tonto’s fur stained white.

“you ate my cupcake, didn’t you?” You asked tonto who panted back at you in response.

“i thought his fur looked a little different today. I thought he was just getting old,” myungsoo commented.

Sunggyu met your eyes as you turned to face him. “tonto ate your cupcake?” He asked, pointing to your pet.

“and most likely my ring,” you finished, giving him an awkward smile. L’s hands shot up to his own mouth, attempting to cover his laughter. You watched sunngyu’s face go pale. After a while, he came to and his hands started coming together before him as he approached Tonto. “Come to daddy, Tonto…” he called out.

You sprung into action and blocked Sunggyu from coming any closer by smashing your lips tightly against his. His hands enveloped around your waist, pulling you closer. L took this as his cue excuse himself and Tonto.

Once the door closed, Sunggyu pulled away, whimpering, “But your ring! I paid so much for all those diamonds!”

You pressed another small reassuring kiss to his lips. “I know. But think of this way. You could get me something more modest. Something smaller.” You pushed his hair back from his face.

“Smaller?”

You nodded. “A ring is just a ring, yeobo. What we’ve got between us, that means a lot more.”

“I thought there was another reason why I married you,” Sunggyu beamed before pressing another meaningful kiss to you lips.